Price increases

Now I know what that means. I’ve had no problems with Lebara, and on the one occasion I contact them they were really helpful. Far better than Vodafone themselves. Perhaps rather than going on what you gather, you can always try it, and if you don’t like it move back. Otherwise just pay more, and complain about the higher price.

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Where my mother was born and bred. Which is entirely irrelevant to this thread of course!

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I’m with GiffGaff and like @HungryHalibut have had no issues with this mvno service. If you like paying over the odds stick with who you’re with.

The quality of reception is number one importance for me. EE is the best by far for me. mvno is a hit and miss service, because customers are lower in priority from the provider (EE).

It looks like I’ll have to complain about the price and this is a good place to have a moan.

Could try Giffgaff £10 for 20Gb monthly contract or 25Gb 18 month contract. Uses the O2 network (better around here than EE).

Used them for years and found it simple and reliable. They also advise you of any cheaper options based on your usage.

Edit: Post crossed with fotobrooks.

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GiffGaff are good, and I was with them before Lebara. The advantage of Lebara is that you can take your full allowance to Europe, whereas GiffGaff limits you to 5GB. You also get 100 international minutes, which you don’t with GiffGaff. We booked a hotel in France today, using my inclusive minutes. It all depends on whether roaming is important.

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I’ve had the advantage of my other half having the same top iPhone, but I’m on EE and she’s on (was) O2. We travel together around the country and it was interesting to compare reception. O2 was not as good. Also, wifi calling was/is far better on EE. No one is like EE. Vodafone is trash.

Complex subject if you read about it. mvno strangling speed etc, because that’s what they have to do at peak times. Don’t want any hassle at all. Customer service is low priority, as I never need them.

Interesting about Europe calls, might get a Lebara sim to try, will need to check on their coverage where we live.

You get unlimited minutes with Giffgaff in (most of) Europe but, as you say, only 5Gb data.

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It shouldn’t surprise anyone to find the media blaming the private sector for the economic debacle caused by the covid confinements…

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GiffGaff here. Problem Free… :expressionless:

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That’s right. I have found the wifi calling very useful as O2 isn’t great inside the house, and we have ditched our landline. You can’t use wifi calling with Giffgaff.

Why would anyone complain about having to pay more for the best.

Go figure. :crazy_face:

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I have no affiliation to the company but it might be worth you taking a look at Scancom’s website (they also sell on Amazon).

I used to pay EE for 2 mobile broadband packages monthly, 32GB and 50GB which came to around £70 monthly, mainly used when we were on UK holidays in rural areas with poor broadband due to distance from the exchange.

No idea how I found the company mentioned but I got an EE unlimited data SIM (fair use of around 500GB monthly I think) from them for around £230 which would last for over 20 months. Fast speeds and saved me a packet.

I’m not a business user but if you are they seem to have phenomenal deals on business grade call/text/data packages from most of the big providers.

You could get this sort of thing for £299 but they have far cheaper monthly plans (I think):

image

Going off-topic a little but 3 continue to annoy - they’ve upgraded their systems, which has caused chaos with family PAYG SIMs, and while on the face of it you get more data for the same price the speeds are dire.

Is it functional or purely decorative?

Though not if it has a Naim sound system?

Oh God, no one’s allowed to sit on it. Just decorative. Lives on an antique Chinese chair.

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Exactly. This is what happens in real life use. EE direct is great service, but I like to moan here with everyone else about everything.

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The more I think about the pricing, unless we have extremely deep pockets, we will have different perceptions at different times.

Got my NAC 72/HICAP/Olive NAP 250 in the early 90’s and what a match made in heaven with the Lingo 1 LP12/EPOS ES 14 I’d got thanks to several upgrades and a friendly bank manager at the time.

Ok, it wasn’t a NAC 52 system, but it was fantastic and I didn’t really want or need any better. Renting with a mate, no mortgage or commitments.

Maybe 15 years later having not really paid much attention to hi-fi matters as I’d simply enjoyed stuff I got active SBLs and a CD 3.5.

None of this broke the bank despite a mortgage/partner.

Things seemed very rosy until maybe 6-7 years ago. My main system was in storage, I got a Nova (replacing a faulty Atom early on) and my hi-fi enthusiasm was rekindled especially when I hooked up my LP12 and Epos speakers, admittedly powering them via an olive NAP 250 fed by the Nova.

At this point further upgrades started looking darned expensive - not necessarily too expensive for what they were, just enough to stop me automatically buying things as I would have as a student/in early years of work.

NAC 282 - not entirely convinced, may have preferred NAC 72.
LP12 upgrades - again not convinced it was better just different.
Supercap DR - not convinced on the 282 (same as 1 vs 2 HICAPs).
SNAXO 242 - was it really much different to the ancient NAXO I had?

The other thing of course is that since the early 90’s Naim added several higher tiers, things I’d be unlikely to get now.

Retirement hopefully looms within a couple of years, but I have been aware for a few years that my profligate spending as a student/in my 20s/30s just isn’t sustainable in old age.

…and the point I completely forgot!

If I wanted to switch to ‘New Classic’ I’m surely looking at over £15k as a minimum? Who on earth at that point would not start wondering if there were better options on an individual basis which should be auditioned?

I blindly upgraded my LP12 from late 80’s to 90’s, simply because the next ‘upgrade’ was always eulogised in the hi-fi press, and in fairness the improvements were generally fantastic.

These days I’m not so sure.

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